|
|
NEWS BULLETIN
ISA News & Updates
|
|
Inside This Issue:
- ISA Golf Tournament Registration
- Sign Up Growers for the Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative
- ISU's Manjit Misra Named Director of NIFA
- Rodriguez Appointed Interim Director of Seed Science Center
- Upcoming Iowa Seed Association Events
- Seed Conditioning Workshops
- Thank You to Our Sponsors!
|
|
ISA Golf Tournament Registration |
|
Join us on June 22 in Ames!
The Iowa Seed Association annual golf tournament is on June 22nd at Veenker Memorial Golf Course in Ames. The education program begins at 10 am featuring Chad Hart, ISU Professor of Economics, and Erica Lydolph, project coordinator for the Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative. Lunch is at 11 am, and the golf shotgun start is at noon. Registration deadline is June 15th. The cost is $90 per person and includes an education program, lunch, green fees for 18 holes, shared golf cart, and drink tickets. Net proceeds go to the Seed Scholarship Fund.
Thank you to our Beverage Cart Sponsor!
|
|
Sign Up Growers for the
Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative
|
|
The Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crop Initiative provides financial incentives for planting cover crops on seed corn production acres. The Initiative was developed by the Iowa Seed Association in partnership with the Agribusiness Association of Iowa, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, and Iowa Corn. Nearly 200 seed corn growers signed up for funding in 2022, covering over 41,000 acres, saving almost 125,000 tons of soil, and spending an estimated $1.6 million of their own money to implement cover crops.
Eight seed companies, representing the vast majority of seed corn production in Iowa, provide cost share, technical assistance, and outreach dedicated to seed corn growers. Financial incentives available to seed corn growers are $15 per acre for winter-hardy and $10 per acre for winterkill cover crops. An additional $5 per acre incentive is available for first-time cover crop users. Growers can access the sign-up form online at Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative | Grower Resources (sustainableseedcorn.org).
For 2023, the Iowa Seed Association approved a new collaboration with Heartland Co-op for dedicated outreach and technical assistance for edge-of-field water quality practices to reduce nitrogen loss via tile drainage. By connecting seed corn growers with technical assistance and cost share information on these practices, increased knowledge can facilitate accelerated implementation.
The Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative focuses on ways to help increase adoption of cover crops specifically within seed corn production. Seed corn provides earlier harvest and better timing opportunities for establishing cover crops in the late summer and early fall after harvest. Cost share applications for planting cover crops on seed corn acres this coming fall are being accepted.
|
|
ISU's Manjit Misra Named Director of NIFA |
|
Manjit Misra has been named the new director of the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Misra was a long-time board member of the Iowa Seed Association. He has retired from Iowa State University where he was the Seed Science Center director for 32 years and a faculty member in agricultural and biosystems engineering for 45 years.
Misra came to ISU in 1979 to coordinate its seed conditioning program and became director of the Seed Science Center in 1991. The center operates the largest, most comprehensive public seed laboratory in the world, testing samples from 300 seed species annually and for 350 pathogens. During his distinguished career at ISU, Manjit has been heavily involved in research, food security, and various global outreach programs.
|
|
Lulu Rodriguez with Manjit K. Misra in the Seed Science Center. Image by Amy Vinchattle Photography. |
|
Rodriguez Appointed Interim Director
of Seed Science Center
|
|
Following the retirement of Manjit Misra, Lulu Rodriguez has been named interim director of the Seed Science Center at Iowa State University and will represent the Center on the Iowa Seed Association board of directors. Rodriguez has been serving as global programs lead for the SSC since 2019. Her duties have included managing interdisciplinary funding proposals to support national, regional, and international seed systems and programs. She is a widely recognized author of scholarly work related to agriculture and food, natural resources, renewable energy and the communication of risk and science, and has received many honors for her research, publications, and teaching.
A search for a permanent director of the Seed Science Center will begin soon. The Iowa Seed Association will be included in the search process.
|
|
Upcoming Iowa Seed Association Events |
|
June 22, 2023
Iowa Seed Association Golf Tournament & Scholarship Fundraiser
Veenker Memorial Golf Course, Ames, IA
August 30, 2023
Iowa Seed Association Board Meeting
Des Moines, IA
|
|
Seed Conditioning Workshops |
|
Upcoming workshops include:
- June 20-22 Speciality seed conditioning
- June 27-29 Seed corn conditioning
- July 11-13 Soybean and small grain seed conditioning
- July 19-20 Seed treatment
- July 25-27 Soybean and small grain seed conditioning
- August 2-3 Gravity separation
- August 8-10 Seed corn conditioning
|
|
A Special Thanks to Our Sponsors! |
|
|
|
FOLLOW IOWA SEED ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO GET NEWS AND UPDATES! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
